1966 (Part 2 )

Miss Mamie Dunlop was Congregational Board Clerk. She had been heavily involved in the work of the church since the workmen's hut, as Sunday School teacher and secretary of the Sunday School, and was one of the original nine members of the Board. She was also now responsible for all duplicating and typing services of the church.

Keith Lodge, a respite care home for the mothers of mentally handicapped children, was opened in Stonehaven by the Church of Scotland Social and Moral Welfare Board.

“Growing Points”, an illustrated report on the work of the church overseas was being prepared by the Overseas Council of the Church. It was to have a full coloured cover and 48 pages of news and information and 50 pictures. It would cost 1/- and would be available from Assembly Week at the church bookstall.

The 17 year old golfer, John McTier of Downcraig Drive, who learned his golf at Linn Park won the Scottish Boys' Golf Championship. He was a pupil at Glenwood.

Bible Training Institute students had been working in Castlemilk West for eighteen months. They all came to the Youth Club on Thursday evenings and the Fellowship on Sunday evenings. Bob McClure assisted Miss Grigor with the Junior Bible Class.

187 new churches and halls had been built by the Church of Scotland since the end of the Second World War to meet the needs of new housing areas. 16 buildings were completed in 1965 and 17 others were in the process of being built. Urgent new projects were possibly going to be delayed because of lack of finance. The General Assembly authorised the committee to borrow £750,000, but the Rev. D.F. Macdonald, the convener of the committee said they were almost at the limit.


With a General Election pending the Kirk Session of Castlemilk West invited Edward Taylor for the Conservatives and Fred Forrester for Labour to a confrontation meeting in the Church Hall. With elder Bill Strain in the chair they were each allowed 20 minutes to say their piece, and then it was question time. The hall was crowded with church people and non-church people and the meeting was a resounding success.


In overseas medical and educational work supported by the Church of Scotland there was a shortage of personnel, especially doctors and teachers. There were vacancies for ten doctors (including three women) in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa and South Arabia. Vacancies also existed for teachers in India, Israel and Africa.


In May, Miss Grigor took a party of ladies to Craigengower, Tighnabruaich for a week's holiday. Several ladies from the church helped with the chores.


The “Organ Box” in the vestibule was in competition with the “Crusader Box “ for contributions, with the result that donations for the magazine were down by £6 10s for the first four months of the year. £5 was received from the Men's Association “to soften the financial blow”.


The new President of the Men's Association was Mr Charles Rough of Dougrie Road who took over from Mr Bert Grant.


The Organ Fund stood at £960 5s 2d, having received £18 15s from a Musical Evening, £14 14s from a visit from the Salvation Army Songsters, and £24 7s 11d for three months from the “little Organ Box on the stairway”. £500 still remained to be paid. An Xmas Fayre was planned for the 26th November to try to raise the remaining £500.


Miss Anne McLay of Drakemire Drive took over from Miss Betty Aitken as captain of 44B Company of the Girls' Brigade.


Some members of the the Young Mothers' group went to a conference which mothers from all parts of the city attended, and found it a very rewarding experience.

Mrs Jamieson had been a Sunday School teacher for many years, but it was “her work as convener of the Building Fund boxes for which she was better known”. This involved arranging for the uplifting of boxes in fifty districts, some five or six hundred boxes in all. Mr Jamieson was the secretary of the Horticultural Society in Castlemilk.

Elder Jimmy Aitken was said to be “a bit of a Jock Stein”, as the church football team won both the Glasgow League Championship and the Glasgow League Cup.



Mr Barker, the organist and choirmaster was looking for new members for the choir.


Mr James S. Milne of Dunagoil Road, who was one of eight surviving members of the 5th Gordon Highlanders, returned to Chièvres, a small town near Brussels in Belgium, 48 years after the town was liberated by the Gordons on Armistice Day in 1918. The purpose of the visit was to present a new set of Colours of the Gordons to the town, the previous ones having been stolen or destroyed during the Second World War when the town was again occupied by the Germans, and to initiate the first part of a twinning of Ellon in Aberdeenshire with Chièvres.


Mr Alex. Stephen and Mr Ronald Watson graduated from Glasgow University with a B.Sc. (Hons.). Alex had been an enthusiastic member of the 18th B.B. and of the Pipe Band for many years and was an officer in the Company before moving to Balornock.   Ronald lived in Castlemilk Drive and his mother was a member of the Woman's Guild.


Kathleen Grant of Croftfoot Road, secretary of the Sunday School, Mairi Dick of Arnprior Road, a leader in 74A Company of the Girls' Brigade and Alan Campbell of Glenacre Quad., son of the Church Treasurer, all gained teaching diplomas from Jordanhill College. Veronica Miller of Dougrie Terrace, a Sunday School teacher and a leader in the Junior Boys' Brigade, having started work for the award at Glenwood School, gained the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award from the Duke himself at Holyrood Palace. Her father, Mr Alex. Miller had been leader of the Life Boys for many years and was a founder member and former President of the Men's Association.


The amount collected in door-to-door collections for Christian Aid in Castlemilk and Carmunnock was £431 7s 4d, being made up of £146 17s from Castlemilk West, £44 17s 2½d from Lloyd Morris Congregational Church, £110 11s 3d from Castlemilk East, and from Carmunnock Parish £56 16s 5d from the Castlemilk area and £72 5s 5½d from the Carmunnock area. The amount collected in Glasgow as a whole was
£10,536 14s 11d and in the whole of Scotland was £74,500.


Children were warned off using the church grounds as “a practice pitch for rock-climbing, pot-holing, ski-ing, or simply an apprenticeship in the arts of the demolition trade”.


Mrs Isa Rose appealed for lady volunteers to join the Church Sick Visitors.


Denis Duncan, editor of the British Weekly, assembled a panel of writers, including Professor William Barclay, Principal Charles Duthie, the Rev. D.P. Thomson and Professor George Knight, to write for the paper on the doctrines and teachings of the Church. The price of the paper was 6d and could be bought at the Church of Scotland bookshop, all leading booksellers or ordered at the local newsagent.


Mr David Prentice, an O.A.P. of Carmunnock Road took note of the appeal for help with the church gardens and spent nearly a week removing the outsize weeds which dwarfed the shrubbery in the lower part of the grounds.


The Castlemilk Horticultural Society held a Spring Garden competition. Details could be obtained from Mr Jamieson of Dougrie Road.


A gift of £5,000 to an appeal by the World Council of Churches was made by Christian Aid for the victims of the Turkish earthquake. Family tents to the value of £1,000 were also sent by Christian Aid as there were 70,000 people without shelter of any kind. The Church of Scotland contributed to Christian Aid through the Co-ordinated Appeal.



Rev. Bob McDill and his wife Martha were welcomed back to the church. They were in Scotland for the wedding of Bob's twin brother in Croftfoot Church. Bob's parents attended the Communion Service in Castlemilk West with them, and Bob preached on the following Sunday, the church's 11th anniversary, at the morning services. On another evening the McDills met with the congregation informally and showed slides.